Veteran Capital Gazette reporter lost her life, saved co-workers, by charging at killer

"Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends."

John 15:13 (NIV)

A veteran newswoman is credited with saving the lives of her co-workers during a mass killing at the Capital Gazette newspaper in Annapolis, Maryland, in June.

In doing so, Wendi Winters lost her own life. Winters, 65, was a local news reporter and community columnist at the Gazette.

In a July 7 report by the paper, co-workers related how Winters stood up to their attacker and ultimately helped save their lives.

What did she do?

Janel Cooley, a survivor of the shooting that killed Winters and four others, recalled that she watched from under her desk as Winters rose out of her chair to confront the gunman:

Winters charged forward holding a trash can and recycling bin, said Cooley, a sales consultant. Winters shouted something like, "No! You stop that!" or "You get out of here!" like she was warding off an unwanted dog.

"She may have distracted him enough that he forgot about me because I definitely stood up and was looking at the door,” Cooley said. “I’m sure he wasn’t expecting…anyone to charge him."

Weeks prior, Winters took an active shooter training course at her church, the report stated. A police officer who taught the course said there are three options: “Run if you can run. Hide if you can hide. Fight only if you must.”

Winters chose to fight but that was no surprise to those who knew her, according to the report.

Because of her actions, other staffers were able to hide or exit the building to safety, the report noted. There were 11 people in the newspaper's office at the time and six survived.

How was she described?

“It sounds like her,” Winters’ son Phoenix Geimer said, adding: “She’s got four kids — she’s not going to take it from anyone.”

She defended her home away from home her pastor, the Rev. John Crestwell, at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Annapolis, told the newspaper.

“That was Wendi,” Crestwell said.

Capital Gazetter reporter Danielle Ohl wrote:

Winters once gave fellow reporter Rachael Pacella the shirt off her back when Pacella spilled gasoline on her clothes before an important interview. She checked in on photojournalist Paul W. Gillespie incessantly after his brother died. Intern Anthony Messenger, who started at The Capital weeks before the attack, said Winters always tried to make him feel comfortable.

Along with Winters, the assailant killed four others — editor Rob Hiaasen, editorial page editor Gerald Fischman, editor and sports writer John McNamara and sales assistant Rebecca Smith.

“I think that Wendi doing what she did served as enough of a distraction that maybe he didn’t see us,” Pacella said. “I absolutely think that Wendi Winters saved my life.”